Creating apps turn the latest entertainment among genext Startup spirit is spilling over to college cultural festivals. Pitch fests and startup weekends are becoming an integral part of campus festivities.Shilpa Elizabeth | ET Bureau | January 15, 2016, 15:51 IST

Creating apps turn the latest entertainment among genext Startup spirit is spilling over to college cultural festivals too. And as entrepreneurial activities on college campuses take wings, rock concerts and robomaking give way to apps and beacons.

Rahul KR, final year B.Tech student at IIT-Madras and CEO of customer-retention application Clozerr, saw one such opportunity when Saarang 2016, the annual cultural fest of IIT-M was announced.

Using his app, which gives notifications to its users regard ing offers from nearby restaurants based on location proximity , Rahul gave a techno turn to treasure hunta common event during college fests.

"It was Asia's first treasure hunt powered by beacons. We leveraged our platform for the event to showcase our tech, increase user base and create buzz," said Rahul.

To register participants needed to download the Clozerr app which would give them the first clue. Beacons were installed at several locations inside the campus to sense the presence of the participants and trigger further clues which the participant would receive on the app.Monitors were set up at the registration desk tracking participants and giving real-time updates.

The event has kicked up interest among other colleges in the city like Stella Maris, National Institute of Fashion Technology and MOP Vaishnav. While Stella Maris, which is not holding its cultural fest this year, has passed it on to the juniors to club the technology with their photohunt event next year, MOP Vaishnav is thinking on adding it to the already prepared list of events, said students of the respective colleges.

The College of Engineering, Guindy which has its cultural fest Kurukshetra coming up, would see the launch of an android app developed in-house."The k! android application is developed by students of our tech team to give live updates to participants and would be launched in February during the fest," said Swetha Sridharan, student director at CEG Tech Forum.

The fest which would include workshops like creative coding would see an event conducted by Startup Weekend, a movement of active entrepreneurs, headquartered in Seattle with facilitators in over 200 cities around the world. Students will have the opportunity to pitch their startup ideas.